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| Weekend Summer Camp June 2010 |
Hi All,
During the weekend of 11/12/13th June 2010, 14 of our Scouts made their way to Beaudesert in Cannock Wood to take part in a weekend Summer camp.
We were also joined by a large contingent of Members from our Cub section to bring the total number of our Group on site to over 40!
We arrived in lovely weather on the Friday evening and the Scouts got on with pitching their tents and moving their kit into them.
The Cub tents, marquee, kitchen tent and first aid tent had all been pitched the day before.
It was a very impressive camp with lots of England bunting and flags strung between tents in keeping with the theme of the camp.
By 8pm all of the work had been done and the everyone was allowed to go off and explore the site. Some of the Scouts grabbed an altar, collected some wood and started work on the campfire.
We had hotdogs for supper along with hot/cold drinks and biscuits.
After supper the Scouts had a little more free time to themselves before getting ready for bed and lights out.
The weather during the evening was relatively mild.
On Saturday morning we awoke to some much welcomed sunshine. For breakfast we had cereals followed by sausage/bacon rolls and drinks.
After flag break the Scouts were then briefed on the programme for the day.
The Troop had two activities organised for Saturday, the aerial runway and archery.
At this point Alan and I had to attend the Bivouac Assessment preparation day at Pikes Pool in Bromsgrove.
The camp was therefore left in charge of 3 Scout Leaders, 1 Beaver Leader, 2 Cub Leaders, 3 senior Scouts and our Group Scout Leaders, Dave!
Lunch was cold meats, pizza slices, sausage rolls, cheese & onion rolls, cheese, salad, hot or cold drinks plus crisps, biscuits and fruit.
The weather stayed kind to us all day with just the briefest of showers.
After the second activity was over and the Troop had been given a rest, the Scouts took part in a hike approximately 4 miles long across the beautiful grounds of Beaudesert Old Park, includng Castle ring.
This was the first time some of our younger Members had got a taste for one of the activities that we do in Scouts and experienced a little bit more freedom and independance that they may not have been used to.
The evening meal was a choice of either chicken curry, sweet & sour or spaghetti bolognese with noodles or rice. Pudding was angel delight & cake!
After washing up and clearing away, the staff at Beaudesert very kindly screened England's first world cup match against the USA in one of the buildings on site.
All were welcome to sit and watch the game and the room was full of good spirit and anticipation.
Those that did not want to watch the match were given plenty of free time to play whilst others carried on collecting wood and prepared another campfire for the evening.
For supper we had some more cakes that had been specially baked by Tom's mum, Ginny. They were very much appreciated and disappeared very quickly. Thank you Ginny!
It was a colder night than previous and there were a few showers in the night.
On Sunday morning we awoke to more glorious sunshine, always a welcome sight!
Breakfast consisted of lashings of bacon, sausage, beans and bread plus hot/cold drinks.
At 9.30am we had our final flag break before starting the second day of activities, which for the Scouts was raft building.
The Scouts were split into 2 groups who each built a simple raft. This was good practise for the upcoming District raft race in July!
When the rafts were built they were let loose on the water to get the hang of rowing and steering before taking part in a quick race.
After the race was over the Scouts had some free time to play pirates on the water and the results were hilarious! Needless to say everyone got a good soaking and ended up in the water, but all of them had enormous fun.
At approximately 12.30pm we had lunch, similar to that what we had on Saturday (and anything else that was left), and then started the inaugural task of breaking camp. The weather stayed clear and so we were able to pack away everything dry.
At 3pm we had final flag down and parents began arriving to pick up their young ones. As part of our closing ceremony we also Invested 4 new Members into the Troop.
I would therefore like to welcome Henry B-J, Bradley R, James D & Joseph P into our Troop and hope they enjoy their time with us as Scouts.
Please click on the image above to see more pictures taken during the weekend.
Many thanks to all those Scouts who took part and I hope you all had a good time.
I would also like to thank all those parents who gave their time and helped us load and unload the minibus & trailer, assisted us with setting up & breaking camp and helped us pitch the tents. This sort of help is vital and very much appreciated, especially on large camps such as this was.
Our next camp will be the Peak 2010 International camp in July.
All the best,
The Scout Leaders
